


I Remember Your Eyes With The Snow Outside

by FireflysLove



Series: Maybe Baby [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky doesn't fall off that pesky train, F/M, Female Steve Rogers, Fluff and Angst, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderbending, Happy Ending, I'm rude, Is Married To Bucky Barnes, Married Couple, Semi-Public Sex, these two attract angst like you wouldn't believe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-12 13:22:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2111451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysLove/pseuds/FireflysLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Steve took the scissors to her hair was the day Bucky realized she was deadly serious.</p>
<p>Fem!Steve/Bucky. And they're married. And Steve joins the army. Follows CATFA until Zola's train. Bucky doesn't fall. They're both on the plane when it goes down in the Arctic, and they both wake up in New York. This is how they got there.</p>
<p>Apparently, this has developed a subplot of these two having semi-public sex. Rating now Explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Haircut

**Author's Note:**

> In which I change major plot points of The First Avenger to make my shippiness happy. Steve's a she, Bucky's still himself, and they're married. Partially inspired by a Tumblr post. Partially inspired by my strange need to write a Fem!Steve. Partially inspired by my constant need for a happy ending. There is smut. My first smut. 
> 
> This first chapter is unusually short because the next one's going to be Steve getting buff and stuff, and it felt more appropriate to break it here.

The day Steve took the scissors to her hair was the day Bucky realized she was deadly serious. He’d picked up an extra shift at the docks, and was planning on surprising his wife with a box of chocolate. He walked through the door and was greeted with a pile of blonde hair sitting in the middle of the living room table and Steve sitting on the couch, elbows on her knees, staring at it.

She turned to look at him, blue eyes flashing defiantly. He put the paper bag containing the chocolates on the counter, and closed his eyes. Bucky took a deep breath and scrubbed his hand over his chin before he opened them.

“Stevie, what did you do?” he said, carefully.

“I told you, Buck. I’m joining the Army,” she replied, rising from the couch and crossing her arms over her chest.

“You know they do physical examinations,” he stated.

Steve snorted. “I’m flat chested enough to pass as a boy. If I wore slacks, I’d get mistaken for your kid brother half the time.”

Bucky decided not to reply to that. He raised his eyes toward the ceiling as if asking the universe, God, or whatever for help. “Let me know how well that works out for you, Stevie.” He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. “At least let me even that out for you. You made a mess of the back.”

Steve smiled into his shoulder. She knew she’d won this one.

 

* * *

 

The first time she tries to enlist, Bucky comes home to a dark apartment. He flicks on the light and finds the living room covered in the shreds of paper. He pulls the pieces together and finds himself holding an enlistment form stamped with a rejection.

 _Steven Grant Rogers_ , the first line reads. He makes a face at that. At least she’d had the sense not to use her married name. No one would know Stephanie Rogers Barnes was the same person. She’d been born Stephanie Georgia Rogers. He runs his hands over his face again, and looks around for his wife.

A soft thump comes from their bedroom. He puts the pile of paper on the counter and, after nudging his shoes off, pads to the door. He pushes it open and is greeted with the sight of Steve, half naked with her short fringe falling over her forehead, in the middle of their bed, with a bottle of whiskey.

“Bad day, Stevie?” he asks.

“You could say that,” she says, not bothering to open her eyes as she takes another long pull from the bottle in her fingers.

He says nothing, and pulls her into an embrace, kissing the top of her head. It still shocks him that her hair is bristly on the back of her head, but he secretly likes it. They’d had to put up money for a wig after Steve’s rash decision, but when she was home and no one was likely to see, she didn’t particularly like wearing it.

“Steve, I have an idea,” he says softly.

“Yeah?” she says.

“We can get you a job in one of the munitions factories. At least then you’re contributing to the war effort,” he says.

She jerks back from him. “Oh, get a nice little female job in a factory. So I can help with the _war effort._ Fuck it, Bucky. I can’t go to war because I was born in the wrong body. It’s so fucking stupid.” She starts to gasp, and Bucky realizes she’s having an asthma attack.

“Shit, Stevie, I didn’t mean it like that. You have to calm down. We’re out of your medicine. Breathe, baby,” he says, and rubs her back in ineffective little circles.

She curls into his arms and sobs.

 

* * *

 

The next day, he’s loading a crate when he hears the radio.

His stomach drops.

His numbers are up.

Steve’s going to kill him.

 

* * *

 

He’s walking home, uniform on, hat cocked just right, when he sees a boy being beat up in an alley. He starts to go by, kids get into fights all the time. Steve had to set his nose at least three times before they’d turned 20. And that’s when he sees it. Steve’s delicate features under a flop of blonde hair. She’s wearing men’s clothes.

His blood begins to boil, and he stalks down the alley, and beats her attacker off. He rounds on her and pushes her until her back is pressed into the wall.

“ _What the fuck do you think you’re doing_ ”, he hisses.

Steve avoids his eyes, “He wouldn’t shut up. I had him on the ropes, Bucky.”

“Steve, I love you, but I have to tell you, I was about three inches away from killing that guy,” Bucky says. He tilts her head up, and kisses her.

When he steps back, she gasps. Apparently, she hadn’t noticed the uniform before.

“You got your orders,” she says flatly.

“Sergeant James Barnes. I’m shipping out to England first thing in the morning,” he says.

“I should be going with you,” she says. He notices the enlistment form crumpled in her left hand and tugs it out.

“Seriously? Jersey?” he asks.

She only glares at him.

“Stevie, tonight we’re going to forget about the war. We’re going to the future,” he says, and shakes out a newspaper with the headline _World Exhibition of Tomorrow 1943_.

 


	2. The Enlistment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve enlists in the Army. Erskine knows things. Then Steve and Bucky have sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOA BABY. Twice as long as the first chapter. And with sex. Be gentle on me, it's my first time publishing any smut. And I apologize to my Tumblr followers who had to endure the entire writing process with me.

They’re standing in front of Howard Stark’s hovering car when Steve sees the Uncle Sam sign.

She’s back in a skirt, but she’s lost her wig somewhere in their apartment, and has a headscarf tied around the back of her head to cover the shorn locks. They met up with a few lady friends of Steve’s (contrary to popular belief, she _does_ have a life outside her marriage), with whom she and Bucky are supposed to go dancing later. They all know it’s a ploy to reel the men into Clara and Evelyn’s clutches. Bucky flirts with them, he may be married, but he’s not dead, and Steve knows it’s completely innocent.

She hears something about a car that doesn’t need to touch the ground when the poster catches her eye.

_Sixth time’s a charm,_ she thinks, and wanders off toward the recruiting center. She steps into the booth, and her head is projected into the middle of the faceless soldier’s chest. She hears a deep sigh from behind her, and turns around to find Bucky shaking his head.

“Are you really determined to get yourself killed, Steve?” he asks.

“No, I just want to do my part,” she says, frustratedly.

“I’m not going to stop you. God knows I never could make you do something you didn’t want to do. Stubborn as three of me put together, you are. I just want you to know that I don’t want you to,” Bucky says.

“Why shouldn’t I?” she asks defiantly.

He pulls her into his chest, tucking her head against his shoulder and encasing her with his warmth. “Because I don’t want you dead, Stevie. Is that really so hard to believe?”

“No,” she says, and shakes her head against his chest. “I just have to do this, Buck.”

He steps back, and holds her by the shoulders at arm’s length. “I know you do. I don’t understand it, but I know you do. Just come home tonight, and don’t do anything stupid, all right? I’ll be at home, waiting for you. I’m leaving at dawn.”

He presses another kiss to Steve’s forehead, and returns to Clara and Evelyn where they’re waiting at the base of the stairs. “Ladies.”

 

* * *

 

Neither of them notice the grey haired man watching them.

 

* * *

 

She didn’t tell Bucky that she’d packed her men’s clothes in her handbag, but she slips into a corner and changes her clothes, smoothing out the curls of her fringe into something more masculine before proceeding to the recruitment station. They give her a form to fill out, and then show her to a curtained-off exam table. The doctor comes in, and begins asking the standard questions when a nurse enters, and whispers in his ear. He glances at his clipboard, and then at Steve.

“Stay here,” he orders and leaves.

Steve’s stomach drops and she twists to read the sign behind her. _It is illegal to lie on your enlistment form._ A few steps short of full blown panic send her for her shoes. She has the left one on and is tying it when the curtain parts again.

A member of the Military Police enters and stares at her. She freezes. A moment later, a man enters, and dismisses the man. He regards her for a few moments before he says, “So you want to go overseas to kill some Nazis.”

Whatever she was expecting him to say, that wasn’t it.

“Excuse me?” she says, stupidly.

“Dr. Abraham Erskine. I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve,” he says, offering his hand to her.

“Steve Bar- Rogers,” she says, tripping over her last name in her astonishment at the man, while shaking his hand. “Where are you from?” she asks rather rudely.

“Queens. 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany. This troubles you?” he replies.

Steve shakes her head and murmurs, “No.”

“And where are you from, Ms. Rogers?” he asks, spreading a file before her. “New Haven? Paramus?”

“Sir, I can explain,” Steve says, her stomach completely vacating her body as she realizes he knows that she’s not a man.

“Oh, it’s neither the five cities nor your sex that truly interests me. It’s the five attempts,” Erskine says, eyes boring holes in Steve’s skull. “You still haven’t answered my question. Do you want to kill Nazis?”

“Is this a test?”

“Yes.”

Steve takes a deep breath, “I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t like bullies. People who look down on me because I’m small and a woman. I just want to do some good in this hellish war.”

Erskine again regards her with that peculiar stare. “There are already so many big men fighting this war. Maybe we need a little lady. I can offer you a chance. Only a chance.”

Steve jumps at the words, “I’ll take it!” They exit the curtained room and return to the desk at the front.

“Good,” Erskine says. “Now where is the little lady from? Actually.”

“Brooklyn,” Steve replies.

Erskine stamps the paper and hands it to her. “Congratulations. Soldier.”

Steve opens the folder and sees the stamp. _1A._

Bucky’s going to kill her.

 

* * *

 

Steve ducks into a corner again to change back into her skirt and blouse. Her heels (she forgot to bring her man shoes, and had actually gone into the recruitment station stocking footed) click rapidly against the sidewalk as she hurries home. Her mind reels as she realizes exactly what she’s done. She is supposed to leave for Basic in a week. Bucky’s leaving for Europe in the morning.

_Bucky’s leaving for Europe in the morning._

She stops, eyes widening as she remembers the look on his face when he’d left to go with Clara and Evelyn. _I’ll be home until dawn_ , he’d said. She checks her watch. It’s 11:54. They have six hours.

Steve hoists her bag higher onto her shoulder and flat out runs to the bus stop. It seems an interminable time until she reaches the stop closest to their apartment, and she jogs the three and a half blocks, bolts up the stairs, and practically drops her keys as she fumbles them into the lock.

The lights are on as she enters, and the upper half of Bucky’s uniform is draped drunkenly over the stool at the kitchen counter. She drops her bag on the floor in front of it, kicks off her shoes, and hops toward the bedroom, pulling her stockings off as she goes. Of course, she inevitably trips over a towel lying on the floor and falls hard on her elbow and hip. A yelp escapes her, and she sits up, clutching her elbow.

At the racket, Bucky yanks the bedroom door opens and surveys his wife, sitting in the middle of the floor.

“I don’t even want to know how it went,” he says. He doesn’t give her a chance to say anything as he pulls her to her feet and cups the back of her head, staring at her for a long moment before crushing his lips to hers. Steve responds just as fervently, tangling her hands in his hair, deliberately disturbing the carefully arranged strands.

Bucky’s hands move to her hips, squeezing her ass on their way down to her thighs. He gives them a tug, and she hops into his arms, legs locking behind him, not breaking their kiss. He hits the light switch as he carries her into the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them. They finally break apart as he drops her on the bed, where she bounces.

“Dammit Stevie. I’m leaving tomorrow. Why’d you suddenly decide to pick a fight with me now?” he asks. “Don’t answer that.”

“Bucky,” she starts, but he shuts her up with his mouth, nudging her thighs apart so he can stand between them.

“Not tonight, Stevie. That’s for letters and later. Tonight, just let me love you,” he whispers.

She nods mutely. He pauses for a moment to pull his undershirt over his head before getting to work on the buttons of her blouse. Suddenly in a frantic rush, she attacks his belt and flies, pushing them down as soon as she gets them free.

He takes a step back and shucks his pants, underwear, and socks in one (rather confused) motion. Meanwhile, Steve pulls off her shirt and discards it somewhere in the vicinity of the hamper. The buttons on the side of her skirt are Bucky’s next victim, and he actually pops a few in his haste.

“Don’t care,” she whispers as he fastens his lips around her still-clothed nipple. She whimpers, and tunnels her fingers through his hair.

Quick fingers flick the hooks of her bra and it follows her shirt into the darkness. Bucky hoists her up and tosses her further back onto the bed. She giggles. He hooks fingers in the multiple layers of clothes at her waist and pulls panties, slip, skirt, and garters off all at once. They too evaporate.

He hovers above her for a moment, looking at her by the streetlight coming in through the window. “God I love you,” he murmurs as if to himself.

Then he grabs her by the hips and holds her down as he plunges his head between her thighs. It’s a good thing he does, because she probably would have twisted off the bed otherwise. Steve’s thighs clamp around Bucky’s ears, and her fingers card through his hair, barely short of pulling it. She feels him smile against her, and then her head drops back as the waves of sensation ripple through her from scalp to toe until her hips snap up into his face and she comes with a sound that’s half sob half whimper.

He sits back on his knees and smirks. It’s an absolutely filthy look, his eyes gleaming in the dim light, chest flushed with arousal, face glistening with the evidence of hers’. She sits up and grabs him by the dog tags, dragging him down and kissing it off his face.

Bucky plants a forearm on either side of her head and cradles the back of it in both hands as he slides slowly into her. He pauses for a moment when he’s at his deepest, then begins to move agonizingly slow. She gasps into his mouth and he resumes kissing her. Her head quickly drops to his neck, where it raises marks that claim him as _hers_ , and they both know they’ll show above the collar of his uniform tomorrow.

They stay suspended like that, in the ancient and primal rhythm for what seems like a life age of the earth until suddenly, Bucky stiffens and with a shudder, follows Steve beyond the edge of oblivion.

 

* * *

 

Of course, life must go on, and too soon, dawn has broken.

 

* * *

 

Steve pulls off her wig and collapses on the couch. Her handbag falls open and her enlistment papers fall out. She realizes she sent Bucky off to war without even telling him she’d soon be joining him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any recognizable dialogue is from Captain America: The First Avenger, the rights to which I do not own, but rewound several times as I transcribed a conversation. 
> 
> Like I said, these two are angst magnets. That's how I ended up with the last two paragraphs.


	3. The Serum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve goes to Basic. Peggy has an uncomfortable conversation. Steve gets buff and stuff. A Hydra Agent dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if it's not obvious, I tried to pack as much of the non-Bucky related plot as I could in this chapter. Also, there is some handwavery with regards to Steve's breasts and people noticing them during the serum infusion.

The first thing she does is panic. Steve had theoretically known that she’d be joining an army full of men, but hadn’t realized that she’d be _living_ with an army full of men. As in, no privacy.

And only one bathroom.

When they tell her to stand in line with the other candidates for Erskine’s ‘hare-brained plot’, she realizes she only comes up to mid-chest on most of these men. At five foot nothing and barely 85 pounds, the men had all snickered at her. Of course they also didn’t know that she was a woman, or most of them probably would have taken the opportunity to hit on her. Her wedding ring was safely stowed in a sock at the bottom of her suitcase. It was obviously a woman’s ring, and besides, she didn’t want any trouble asking about someone she had at home.

So she’s standing in line, her head well below the shoulder-level of the rest of the candidates, when she sees Peggy Carter. She hadn’t expected to meet any other women on an Army Base (well, women of _respectable morals_ , anyway.) She gets an even further shock when the voice that falls from Peggy’s lips is formed in the rising tones of the woman’s English accent.

“Gentlemen, I’m Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division,” she introduces herself.

One of the men, Gilmore Hodge by name, makes a comment that gets him punched out. Steve has a hard time not snickering. She’s had to resort to that tactic a few times, not many, but still.

The base’s commanding officer, Colonel Phillips, comes forward and makes a speech about The War needing men. He stumbles over his speech as his eyes skip over the place where he thinks Steve’s head should be. Steve only then realizes _exactly_ what she’s signed up for. A super soldier program.

Bucky really is going to kill her this time.

 

* * *

 

What follows is the most physically intensive week of Steve’s life thus far. (And she has more asthma attacks in that one week than she usually has in three months.) It’s staring at the ground and panting that has her realizing how to take the flag down.

 

* * *

 

When Agent Carter says “Faster ladies, come on. My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul. Move it!” Steve’s too far gone with her pushups to laugh at the irony.

She’s struggling along when she hears the word that seals her destiny.

“Grenade!”

She wraps herself around it and tells everyone to get away. When it doesn’t go off, she looks up at Erskine and asks “Is this a test?”

Colonel Phillips mutters something about her still being skinny.

Erskine smiles encouragingly.

 

* * *

 

Later, Steve is sitting in the now-empty barracks, not really reading the book in her hands when Dr. Erskine knocks and then sits on the bed across from her. He tells her how the war started, really started. About Johann Schmidt and HYDRA.

“It should seem obvious at this point, but we’re going to have to keep up this charade of you being a man. A few people are going to have to know. I’m going to trust your judgment on whom you tell. You know very well what they’d do to you if they found out. But you are a good woman. The serum amplifies what is inside. Good becomes great. Bad becomes worse.

“This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, they lose respect for that power. But a weak man, knows the value of strength. And love. And compassion,” he says, tapping her twice in the chest. “And, as a woman, you will know this better than many men ever could.”

“Thanks,” Steve says. “I think.”

 

* * *

 

Steve’s in the back seat of a car, on the way to change her entire life, with Agent Carter.

“I know this place,” she says. “I got beat up in that alley. And that parking lot. And behind that diner.”

“Did you have something against running away?” Peggy asks.

“You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. You can't say no forever, right?” Steve says with a shake of her head.

Peggy glances at her. “I know a little of what that’s like. To have every door slammed in your face.”

“I don’t understand why you’d want to join the army, then,” Steve says.

Peggy turns a glare on her, “So you don’t think that women are equal to the tasks of men, then? I thought that Dr. Erskine picked you because of your character. Some character you have.”

Steve freezes. She realizes this is where she should probably tell Peggy. Allowing her voice to rise to its usual register rather than the one she has been affecting, “Oh, no! That’s not it at all. It’s just…well… there’s something Dr. Erskine forgot to mention…”

Peggy’s eyes widen as Steve’s hands fly to her tie, loosen it, pull it over her head, and then unbutton her shirt. She looks back at Peggy and shrugs her shoulders. What breasts she has are bound flat by yards of linen bandages.

“Just a little thing, then,” Peggy finally says.

Steve’s hands fly back up her buttons and she replaces her tie. “I don’t have to tell you what would happen if someone found out, do I?” she says, echoing Erskine’s words.

Peggy says nothing for a moment. “Of course. If I can ask, why did you volunteer?”

Steve shrugs, “I wanted to do something more than just stay home and work in a factory. I had a devil of a time convincing my husband not to tie me to the radiator to keep me at home.”

“You’re married?” Peggy asks, surprised.

Steve is about to reply when they pull up to an unassuming storefront.

They enter the store and the shop’s owner asks Peggy about the weather. She replies that she always carries an umbrella. The two women step through the door and into a small room lined with bookcases. Steve is about to ask Peggy what they’re doing there when the books swing away to reveal a hospital corridor. She glances down at Steve and walks briskly toward the door at the back. They enter the procedure room.

And then Steve sees the pod.

 

* * *

 

A few moments later, she finds herself lying in it, hissing through the pain as the serum is injected into her. They had erected curtains for this, since she needed to be shirtless. The senator present had complained about not being able to see everything. Apparently, Brooklyn was far out of his way. Dr. Erskine had put on the face of paranoid scientist and said something about a “sensitive and unique injection system”. The senator had not been pleased, but walked away and into the room upstairs. She is handed an oversized shirt and pants. They’re falling down and when she mentions this, Erskine says, “You would not be happy with the results of wearing a belt with those.”

The curtain is taken away, and she can see the group of people staring at her. Her heart is beating far too fast, and she can tell she’s on the edge of an asthma attack. She hears, “Now, Mr. Stark,” and the pod rises and closes around her. It’s very dark and very warm.

Steve is vaguely aware of Erskine making a speech to the observers, and jumps when he knocks on the pod. “Steven? Steven can you hear me?”

“I guess it’s too late to use the bathroom,” she quips nervously.

“We will proceed,” she hears as he walks away.

And then the pod gets bright. And very, very painful. It’s as bad as every illness, asthma attack, and pain she’s ever had combined. She hears frantic shouts to turn it down, but suddenly the pain starts to break, and she yells, “No! I can do this! Keep going!”.

Then she blacks out for a moment.

Steve comes to as the pod is descending and opening. She can practically hear the patriotic music swelling in the background. Erskine grabs her arm and a few more people step forward to help her descend the steps. There are mutters of “You did it!” all around.

“How do you feel?” Peggy asks her.

“Taller,” she says, looking around, and realizing she can see over Peggy’s head.

Suddenly, there is an explosion, and glass flies everywhere. A reporter leaps forward and grabs the remaining vial of serum. He pulls out a gun and shoots Erksine twice in the chest, then pelts out of the room. Steve’s heart leaps into her throat, and she grabs Erskine by the shoulders. He weakly lifts his hand from the floor and taps her chest twice. “A good man.”

As his eyes glaze over, Steve feels a rage she has never known boil up inside her, and she takes off after the man, heedless of her barefootedness. She surfaces just in time to tackle Agent Carter out of the way of the man driving the car directly at her, and the gives chase.

He leads her pell mell through the crowded Brooklyn streets, until she ends up on top of his car, and then she’s being shot at. A bullet grazes her ribs, but she never loses her grip. He grabs a little boy and she chases him onto the piers.

He loses the bluff when his gun misfires, and tosses the boy in the water. Torn between saving the child and catching the man, Steve runs to the edge of the pier.

“Go get him! I can swim!” the boy cries.

Steve runs after the man, who is now in some kind of submersible. She leaps in the water, and catches up to the vehicle. Punching out the glass, she grabs the man, and drags him to the surface. She throws him out of the water, too furious to notice her new strength.

She holds him down and shouts, “Who the hell are you?!” She doesn’t notice the vial of serum he was holding shatter.

“The first of many. Cut off one head, and another will take its place,” the man says, and bites one of his teeth. A cyanide capsule. “Hail HYDRA.”

And then he dies.

Steve drops his body, stands up, and stares at her arms, confounded by her new muscles.

_What now?_ is all she can think.

 

* * *

 

Everything seems to be in a daze for Steve after Erskine’s death. She knows she’s having her blood drawn. She’s back in uniform, having been given a compression shirt that was an experimental SSR uniform. She only agrees to the USO tour because she thinks she’s going to get to do _something._

And she desperately misses Bucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Bucky next chapter, but it will probably be this weekend, because I'm getting teeth out tomorrow. Yay.


	4. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve gets frustrated. Peggy does something rash. Bucky is very confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended this and the next chapter to be one piece, but this ended up at 1500 words, which is about what I like to have my chapters at. So no Angry Tree Sex this chapter. (It _is_ coming.) Also, implicit sexual harassment. (Because it's the 40s.)

She’s in Milwaukee, she thinks. Another one of the shows. Apparently they’re raising money. She knows the men come to see the girls in the short skirts. If only they knew. Steve pulls on the compression shirt again, and winds linen around her chest. It’s bigger now. She hadn’t expected that. When she had finally had a moment to herself, she had stripped to the skin and examined herself in a mirror. She was much bigger now, and had sized up proportionally. She might even be taller than Bucky.

Not that it did anything for her. She still had to pad her shoulders out. It was one of those shoulder pads that had led to the discovery of her sex by Senator Brandt. He came to congratulate ‘Captain America’, as they were calling her now, and had gotten a nasty shock. Her, breasts unbound, in her dressing room.  He’d made several lewd suggestions until the day she had grabbed him by the arm, shoved him against the wall, and growled in his ear that if he wanted to keep making money, he should keep his hands to himself, or she would give them to _her husband_ as an anniversary present.

The show manager raps on her door.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Steve says as she pulls her hood on. At least her ass fills the tights out.

That’s the night they tell her they’re taking the USO tour overseas.

 

* * *

 

The tomato isn’t what Steve expected. But to be honest, Italy in the rain wasn’t she expected either. She ushers the other girls back on stage. She’s pretty sure at least some of them know, but none of them have said anything.

Later, in the rain, she’s drawing a not-so-subtle picture of herself as a trained monkey when a familiar voice makes her jump.

“Hello Steve,” Peggy says.

“Hi!” Steve says, turning to face the other woman. “What are you doing here?”

“Officially, I’m not here at all,” Peggy says with a moue of distaste. “That was quite the performance.”

“Yeah,” Steve says.

“I hear you’re America’s new hope,” Peggy says.

Steve starts to say something about bond sales, but Peggy tells her she’s spouting Senator Brandt’s bullshit. Steve knows Peggy’s telling the truth.

“At least he has me doing this,” she mutters. “Phillips would’ve had me in a lab.”

“Are those your only two options?” Peggy asks, glancing at Steve’s drawing. “Lab rat or dancing monkey? You were meant for more than this, you know.”

“What?” Steve asks, deflated. “You know, for the longest time I dreamed about coming overseas and being on the front lines. Serving my country. Finally got everything I wanted. And I’m wearing huge shoulder pads.”

An ambulance rolls in.

“They look like they’ve been through hell,” she says.

“These more than most. They went out on an offensive against Schmidt. 200 left. Less than fifty returned. Your audience was what’s left of the 107th,” Peggy said.

The bottom drops out of Steve’s world. Her newly enhanced memory is nearly perfect. She hadn’t seen Bucky’s face in the audience.

“The 107th?” she asks, breathless.

“Yes, what about it?” Peggy says.

“Bucky…” she says, leaping to her feet.

“What?” Peggy asks again, following after her.

The next few minutes pass in a blur for Steve. Phillips tells her they’re going to win the war to get the prisoners back. She hears “We’re leaving your husband to die.”

She makes the plan to rescue the prisoners before she’s even had time to process the information.

“Hey, slow down for a second,” Peggy says. “James Barnes is your husband, isn’t he?”

Steve nods stiffly and continues pulling on clothes over her tights.

“Steve, I’m sorry. But you can’t go out there alone,” Peggy says.

Steve looks at her. Peggy looks like a drowned rat. A pretty drowned rat, but a drowned one, nonetheless. “I have to go,” she says, and throws the shield in the back of the jeep.

“Not like that, you don’t,” Peggy says.

 

* * *

 

And that was how Steve found herself in the back of a plane with two of the three people on this continent who knew she was a woman. She takes advantage of this by stripping to the skin and unbinding her breasts. The compression shortens her breath, and the last thing she needs on a rescue mission is to find out that the serum hasn’t cured her asthma.

“This is a transponder,” Peggy says, handing her the equipment. “If you don’t mind, I have a question.”

“Yeah?” Steve asks, fastening the thing to her chest strap.

“I thought your name was Rogers,” Peggy says.

“It is,” Steve says, “Stephanie Rogers Barnes at your service. Couldn’t exactly put that on my enlistment form, could I?”

“No, I guess you couldn’t,” Peggy says with a chuckle.

Then the plane is bombarded, and Steve is dropping from the sky. She hops in the back of a truck and kicks several men out of it. The head knocking continues until she finds herself in what she can’t help think of as a dungeon.

“I’m looking for a Sergeant James Barnes,” she says, unlocking more doors.

“There’s an isolation ward, but no one’s ever come back from it,” a man says.

Steve gives them directions to get out, and goes off to find her husband.

She fights her way through the warehouse until she reaches the other side. Up stairs and into deserted corridors. She rounds a corner and sees a diminutive man leaving a room. She starts to chase him when she hears groaning from the open door. Steve enters the room and stops for a moment, transfixed. There’s her husband.

“Sergeant James,” he’s muttering.

“Bucky!” she says breathlessly. She assesses him for a moment, then rips the straps holding him down off the bed. “Come on,” she says.

“Steve?” he asks, confused.

“Yeah,” she says. “I thought you were dead.”

“I thought you were smaller,” he says.

He swings his feet toward the ground, and grabs her shoulder for support. As soon as he’s standing under his own power, he grabs her face and kisses her breathless. She realizes now that she’s not quite as tall, but she can look directly into his eyes at the very least. She breaks away and tugs on his hand. “We have to go.” Noticing a map on the wall, she takes a moment to memorize the points marked. “Come on.”

“What happened to you?” he asks, following her out.

“I joined the Army,” she quips.

In the corridor, the sounds of explosions outside rock the walls. She drops Bucky’s hand to scout ahead.

“Did it hurt?” he asks.

“A little.”

“Is it permanent?”

“So far.”

They make it to the warehouse floor before the explosions inside start.

Up more stairs.

“Captain America! How exciting!” a man says. A few more words lead her to the conclusion. _This_ is Johann Schmidt. The first recipient of the serum. “I did not expect you to be a woman,” he says. “Perhaps Erskine had some perverted fantasy he was trying to fulfill.”

The last statement brought a growl out of Bucky.

“I don’t think so,” Steve says.

“Still, impressive,” Schmidt says.

“You have no idea,” Steve says, and swings a punch at his face.

“Haven’t I?” Schmidt lands a punch that buckles the metal of Steve’s shield. The bridge starts to retract, and Schmidt goes on about how he was Erskine’s greatest success.

And then he pulls off his face.

 

* * *

 

“You don’t have one of those, do you?” Bucky asks, glancing at his wife with eyebrows drawn together. He’s been poked, probed, injected, subjected, and other verbs he doesn’t care to think about. His wife’s huge, and he’s pretty sure he’s not hallucinating it. And now there’s a guy with a red face.

He doesn’t really hear what the man says next, just that he and his little devil minion scuttle off, and then Steve’s urging him up.

Up and up and up.

The explosions are getting worse.

Steve makes him go over the rafter first, but it collapses before she can make it.

“There’s got to be a rope or something!” he shouts.

“Go!” she yells.

“NO! _Not without you!_ ” he screams back. She’s come through hell for him, and he’ll stay damned if he doesn’t wait for her.

And then she bends the railing out of the way. _There’s no way she is going to—yes she is!_

Time seems to freeze as she sails toward him. Her hands grapple at the railing, and he grabs her wrists. She is certainly much, _much_ bigger than when he left New York. She’s up and over the rail, and they’re sprinting for their lives.

His body chooses that moment to give out, and she scoops him up, throwing him over her shoulder.

Down, down, down.

They’re outside. Steve is yelling at people. Bucky feels himself dropped onto something with wheels. Then he passes out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, any recognizable dialogue is from _Captain America: The First Avenger_ (Which I tragically have to keep rewatching parts of). Steve's binding practices aren't exactly the safest thing known to man.


	5. The Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky wakes up in a haze. Steve gets pinned to a tree. Bucky realizes he's married to Captain America.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really an excuse for these two to get it on again. Apparently, the smut is going to be more explicit this time.

It’s the sun that wakes him. Bright, dappled light. He hasn’t seen the sun in… how long he doesn’t know. His head’s pillowed on something soft, for once. Bucky blinks open his eyes and finds himself staring upside down into Steve’s blue ones. His head is in her lap.

He tries to sit up, but a firm hand on either shoulder keeps him down.

“Not so fast,” she says. “We don’t know what happened to you, and until you can prove you don’t have a concussion or something, you’re lying down.”

He remembers the countless speeches regarding her health he’s given her over the years, and meekly complies. It’s not like he has any complaints about his current position, anyway. “Yes ma’am.”

“That’s more like it,” she chuckles wryly.

Someone approaches. “I’m a nurse, ma’am,” he says.

Steve leans back, and the man looks down at him.

“Pupils dilated normally. What’s your name?” he asks.

“Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes,” Bucky says.

“And hers?” he asks.

“Stephanie Rogers Barnes.”

“Headache? Blurry vision? Trouble remembering anything?”

“No, no, yes, but I think that’s because of whatever it is they did to me.”

“What’s the square root of sixteen?”

“Four.”

“He’s probably fine, Captain, but I’d still have him looked at when we get back. He’s the only one I’ve seen come out of that room alive,” the man says to Steve, and then walks off.

“ _Captain?_ ” Bucky says to Steve, finally sitting up.

Her face rights itself, and she’s smirking at him. “Yep.”

He takes a moment to really _look_ at her. “Damn. What did you do?”

“I told you. I joined the Army,” Steve says.

A soldier calls her over to look at something, and Bucky’s left pondering exactly what she meant by _that._ She comes and hauls him to his feet, and he is surprised to find that he feels completely rested. He should have been still exhausted. Bucky shrugs it off, and goes to join the convoy that’s forming.

Steve hands him a machine gun. “I hope you don’t have to use this. But it makes you look impressive,” she says with a smirk.

God he’s missed her.

“All right, men,” she calls. “It’s thirty miles to base. Get the wounded up on the tanks. Pick a man and stay with him. I want everyone to be responsible for someone else. All of us are getting home or none of us are getting home. I’ve read some of the condolence letters. Don’t let your mamas and wives get them!”

Her speech is met with a cheer.

The next miles roll out like a dream for Bucky. He’s walking next to his wife, who is wearing half of an army uniform and is nearly as tall as him, in a forest in Italy, with a squad of men she just ( _singlehandedly!_ ) rescued from a man with a red face.

He guesses they make it fifteen miles that day, before Steve calls a halt, and they make camp. Some of the men go out and get foodstuffs, others get water and start a fire, tend to the wounded. Bucky sits in a daze, watching it all happen around him. He realizes he should probably engage, but there is _something_ sitting between him and reality, and he can’t quite break it.

Steve hasn’t said much to him all day. Or at least he thinks she hasn’t.

He eats what’s handed to him, no real thought given to it.

It’s only when night falls that his reverie finally snaps.

 

* * *

 

Steve knows there’s something wrong with Bucky. He’s too quiet, wandering around like he’s in a daze. Whenever she says something to him, whether it’s as banal as the birds in the trees, or how she could probably lift him now, he seems like he’s not paying attention.

She’s standing out in the trees, beyond the ring of sentries that guard the camp when a hand slams down on her shoulder and pushes her back into a tree.

“What the hell did you do, Steve?” Bucky hisses. “And no bullshit this time.”

“I joined the Army. An experimental program,” she says. She hadn’t heard him come up behind her, and with her enhanced hearing, that’s saying something.

“An experimental program. For what exactly?” Bucky asks, eyes flitting over her face.

“Super soldiers. They were supposed to create an army. They got me. As soon as it happened, HYDRA sent an assassin to kill Dr. Erskine,” Steve says.

“Super soldiers. So that’s what Schmidt was talking about,” Bucky says.

“Yes. He was the first to get Erskine’s serum. It went wrong because he is an evil man,” Steve says.

“So how long did you wait to join the Army after I left, Stevie?” Bucky asks, practically spitting the words out.

Steve freezes. “Um… the night we went to the Stark Expo.”

“Of course you did. Weren’t going to let me go alone, were you?” Bucky says.

“I couldn’t, Buck,” Steve says with a helpless shrug.

Bucky’s anger suddenly deflates. “I know. But you’re here now. And I mean _here. Now._ ”

And Steve realizes what he means as he presses into her and latches onto her neck.

“Really? _Here? Now?_ ” Steve asks, breath catching on the last syllable.

“You’re the one that dragged yourself into this war. Unless you don’t want to be _here_ right _now,_ ” Bucky says.

“Oh, I think I do,” Steve says, and drags Bucky’s face up to her own.

He grabs her wrists and pins them above her head. They’re both pretty sure she could take him down, but they’re also both pretty sure she doesn’t want to. Their tongues battle for dominance, and Bucky’s free hand buries itself in the back of Steve’s hair. Longer now, but still far shorter than he remembers it ever being. He releases her hands after a few moments, and they clamp onto the back of his neck.

“Here. Now,” she growls.

Hands flit around, Bucky’s pants are pushed down around his knees, Steve’s removed completely. When he sees her Captain America uniform (complete with tights) on underneath the canvas pants and leather jacket, he has to pause to cackle.

“No fucking way,” he says between guffaws. (Steve thinks he looks utterly ridiculous himself. Pantsless in the middle of the forest at night.) “You’re Captain America?”

“Nice to meet you,” Steve says with a mock bow that handily allows her to remove the offending tights.

“Oh my Lord, I’m married to Captain America. No one is going to believe this,” Bucky says. Mirth still rides in the color high on his dirty cheeks as he returns to her, erection bobbing lewdly.

Their heads both snap around as they hear a sentry pass closer than either expected.

“Captain Rogers?” the man calls out.

Steve’s eyes, pupils blown in arousal, widen further. “Yes. Everything is fine. I’ve got it over here,” she says, tongue tripping over the words as Bucky takes the opportunity to suck another love bite into her shoulder.

“All right ma’am. Call if you need anything,” the soldier says. Neither of them makes a sound until they can no longer hear the sentry’s boots on the forest floor.

“Here, now. And rather quickly,” Steve says.

“Right. And be quiet about it,” Bucky replies. He hooks his hands under her thighs and lifts her so her back is resting against the tree and her ankles are locked behind his back. Despite Steve’s directive, he takes his sweet time pushing slowly into her, reveling in the feel of her around him after so long apart.

Her voice breaks in a cry, and she buries her face in his shoulder to stifle the moans, fingers tunneling through his hair.

“Damn, Stevie,” he whispers in her ear. “You certainly got heavier.”

She removes her head for a moment to glare at him. The effect is rather lost as he withdraws and pushes in again, her mouth falling open in a silent _O_. Her head flops forward again.

“I’m not complaining,” he says softly.

Her back is scratched against the bark, but she doesn’t care, as Bucky’s thrusts become more erratic. He’s reduced to monosyllables and her name, muttered over and over in her ear. Steve’s orgasm takes them by surprise, she stiffens, and her fingers tighten to the point of pain in his hair.

“ _Bucky_ ,” she whimpers.

He follows a few seconds later, and his arms threaten to drop her. He doesn’t, of course. He does have to put her down, bare feet to the cold leaf litter. She stifles a yelp.

They hurry quickly back into their clothes, Steve completely abandoning the tights.

The sentry nods to them as they pass. All three of them know he knows exactly what just happened, but he’s not going to tell a soul.

Back in the circle of the firelight, someone hands Bucky a pair of blankets, and they find an unoccupied space to lie down.

The last thing Steve thinks before she drifts off to sleep is _Thank you, God. I still fit into the curve of Bucky._

 

 


	6. The Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Bucky, and the 107th come back. Col. Phillips gets a nasty surprise. Peggy has an awkward midnight discussion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just really sorry, Bucky. For the shit your wife puts you through. And an apology also goes out to Peggy for the conversation she has to have with Steve.

He still thinks Steve is a lunatic. _His_ lunatic, but a lunatic nonetheless. They walk back into the camp to cheers three days after Steve springs them from the prison factory. A hundred and fifty men, several trucks, and a tank. Plus whatever HYDRA weapons they could grab. Bucky never thought he’d be glad to see Army tents again, but they’re a sight for sore eyes.

Steve stops in front of a man wearing a uniform that indicates his rank as Colonel. She salutes.

“Some of these men need medical attention,” she says, gesturing to the crowd behind her. “I’d like to submit myself for disciplinary action.”

Bucky snorts internally. Steve, true to the end. She rescues an entire regiment and asks for punishment.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” the Colonel says, before he wanders off.

A pretty brunette steps forward and looks up at Steve.

“You’re late,” she says in a precise British accent.

Steve holds up the transceiver. “Couldn’t call my ride,” Steve says, and smiles.

An errant feeling of jealousy curls itself around Bucky’s stomach, and he kicks it down.

“Hey!” he shouts. “Let’s hear it for Captain America!”

He hopes Steve doesn’t see his face twist into a less than pleasant expression.

 

* * *

 

Later, he has been cleared by the medics. He doesn’t tell them everything, of course. Bucky’s beginning to suspect that something more than just poking and prodding happened to him, but that’s not something he wants to dwell on at the moment. He puts in an appearance at the mess hall, not really tasting the food he’s eating. Hunger satisfied, he goes in search of his wife.

He asks around, and someone finally tells him that Captain Rogers is in Colonel Phillips’ command tent.

Bucky strides toward it, and stops short when he hears raised voices.

 

* * *

 

Steve knew it would come to a head eventually. Erskine had never told Phillips that Steve was a woman, and apparently, Peggy had just assumed he knew. So when Phillips had asked Peggy where Steve was, and Peggy had replied “She’s getting something to eat,” all hell had broken loose.

So that’s how she found herself being chewed out by an angry military officer, Peggy standing sheepishly in the corner.

Now, Steve has been yelled at more than once in her life. She grew up with Bucky Barnes for a best friend, and she knows how to pick a fight with just about anyone. And she sometimes doesn’t know how to shut up.

But this tirade is _spectacular._ Col. Phillips has so far used at least three anatomically improbable acts and several insults to the character of Steve’s mother. Steve stands at attention and waits for him to be done. All storms blow over eventually.

Finally he winds down, “Now I can’t exactly do anything about this because you’re _still_ America’s golden boy. But I don’t have to be happy about it. Try to keep it a secret, will you?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve says meekly, though she’s not feeling very meek.

“Anything else you neglected to mention?” he asks, sitting in his chair with a large thump.

“Well…” Steve says. “I’m married. To Sergeant Barnes. And my married name is Stephanie Rogers Barnes.”

Phillips closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Just try not to get pregnant. That’s the last thing we need.”

“Yes, sir,” she says again, filing that little bit of advice away for later.

“Both of you, out. I need a drink,” Phillips says, waving Steve and Peggy out of the tent.

Steve glances down at herself as they leave and turns to Peggy. “Is it noticeable?”

“What? Those?” Peggy asks, gesturing to Steve’s chest. “Not as much as you might think, it just looks like you have massive pectorals. The shoulder pads help.”

This last is met by a snort.

“Really, Bucky? You have something to say about this whole situation?” Steve asks, turning to stare at her husband, who is currently hiding behind a flagpole.

“You’re going to need stronger and less constrictive materials if you plan to go to war like that,” he says, falling into step beside Steve.

“I presume this is the offending husband,” Peggy says. “Agent Margaret Carter. Call me Peggy.” She offers a hand across Steve’s torso to Bucky.

“Sergeant James Barnes. Call me Bucky,” he says, shaking it.

“Bucky. Now where did that one come from?” Peggy asks.

“His middle name’s Buchanan,” Steve puts in.

“He was my great uncle on my mother’s side,” Bucky says defensively.

“And my aunt is Eleanor Roosevelt,” Steve mutters to Peggy. Peggy laughs.

“Oh, Steve. I meant to tell you. We’re going to SSR headquarters tomorrow. We’ll see if you can remember the sites of those flags. The truck’s leaving at 0800. Be there or you’re walking,” Peggy says. “I have a meeting I have to pretend to be interested in. See you then.” She walks off toward the command tents.

Steve turns to Bucky. “Well that was Peggy.”

“I can see that,” Bucky says. “I like her. You should keep her.”

Steve chuckles.

 

* * *

 

Steve gently extracts herself from Bucky’s arms and pads out of the tent into the rainy night. Col. Phillips’ statement about getting pregnant has her worried. Before the serum, it was never something that she and Bucky had to worry about. After two years of marriage and no babies, they had finally concluded that infertility was amongst Steve’s many maladies. But since all the scoliosis, asthma, color blindness, diabetes, and heart arrhythmia had all been cured by the serum, there was no reason to think that this particular issue hadn’t been cured as well.

She needed birth control advice. And there was only one person in the entire camp that she felt comfortable asking.

“You need _what_ advice?” Peggy asks, glaring at Steve from the flap of her tent. She’s wearing a housecoat, a nighty, and combat boots with thick wool socks.

“Contraception. I have only a vague idea of how it works,” Steve says, looking anywhere but Peggy’s face.

Peggy slaps both hands over her face and drags them down. “All right. Come in.”

Steve enters and sits gingerly on the chair that Peggy indicates.

“Now, I assume you know how babies are _made_ ,” Peggy says.

“Yes. It’s just that I was barren before the serum, so we never had to worry about surprise babies. Now, I’m not so sure,” Steve says.

“Well, at least you know the basics,” Peggy says.

“You don’t want to know what happened on the walk back here,” Steve says under her breath.

“What?” Peggy asks. “Never mind.” She goes to a small box that sits in the trunk at the end of her cot, and pulls out a small package. “You know what this is?”

“Condom,” Steve mutters.

“Yes. Do you know how to use it?” Peggy asks.

Steve’s cheeks are red as she shakes her head.

Peggy sighs deeply. She reaches behind her and grabs her hairbrush. “All right. This is just as embarrassing for you as it is for me. You take it out of the wrapper like this, put it over the tip, and roll it down.”

They avoid each other’s eyes as she quickly demonstrates.

“Only use them once, then toss them. If they have holes, they’re useless. Don’t double up, it can make them rip. And they’re not a failproof method,” Peggy says. “There are other methods, but they’re far less reliable. If you can’t get a condom, just don’t do it.”

Steve’s cheeks are scarlet with embarrassment by this point, but she nods.

“That’s the basics,” Peggy says, tossing the condom in her wastebasket. “Any other questions?”

“Not right now,” she says.

“Good. Now go back to bed. I’m tired, and we both have somewhere to be in the morning,” Peggy says.

Steve takes this for the dismissal it is, and leaves Peggy to her sleep.

She makes it back to her tent during a pause in the rain, and is tying the flap closed when Bucky sits up. “Where have you been?” he asks.

“Not now, Buck,” Steve says. She pulls off her clothes and burrows back into the warmth of their cot. “We have to have a talk, but I’m going to sleep first.”

Bucky settles the blanket back over her and curls an arm around her head.

“In the morning then,” he mutters into her hair.

He’s met with a snore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think that Peggy's a practical woman, and that's why she has a condom in her tent.


	7. The Bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve sees a map. Peggy's got a date. Bucky has a practical lesson in prophylactics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's chapters like this that are the reason I can't put a number of chapters on this fic. This chapter is about 12/17 smut.

Steve points out the last point on the map that’s laid out in front of her, and it is whisked away.

“I only got a glance,” she says.

“Well, no one’s perfect,” Peggy says.

Steve is back in her Army uniform, her _man’s_ Army uniform. A quick conversation that morning with Peggy had led to the conclusion that while most of the camp might either know or suspect, Steve should probably keep her gender under wraps. Literally. They walk to where Col. Phillips is standing by a bulletin board.

“So what are we going to do now?” Steve asks him.

“We’re going to light a fire under Johann Schmidt’s ass,” Phillips says, taking a file from a blonde woman. “Are you in?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve says.

“Good. We’re gathering the best men,” Col. Phillips says.

“With all due respect sir,” Steve says. “So am I.”

 

* * *

 

As she’s buying her ‘best men’ another round, she starts to doubt her choice of war companions. Or, at least the existence of the bottoms of their stomachs.

She plunks herself down next to Bucky, who is sitting at the bar. “How about you? Ready to follow ‘Captain America’ into the jaws of death?”

“Hell no,” Bucky says, and takes a drink. Steve’s stomach twists. “The girl from Brooklyn who said yes to a poor, hopeless boy? I’m following her.”

Steve smiles.

“You’re keeping the outfit, right?” Bucky asks, giving Steve what is quite possibly the lewdest once over ever.

“You know, it’s growing on me,” she says, twisting her lips.

Suddenly the sounds of the men singing drop away and a hush washes over the bar. Steve and Bucky crane their necks to look into the other room and are met with a vision in red. Peggy swirls into the room in a fitted knee-length red dress and comes to a stop before them.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” she says.

“Ma’am,” Bucky replies.

“Agent Carter,” Steve says.

“Stark needs you to look at some equipment tomorrow morning,” Peggy says. The men have resumed their singing. “I see your top squad is preparing for battle.”

“I bought them a drink, what can I say?” Steve says with a shrug.

Bucky mutters something about “Tiny Army paychecks.”

“Buck, I’m Captain America. I get paid to look good,” Steve says under her breath. “I get paid _well_ to look good.”

Bucky shoots her a glance. “Can I buy you a drink, Peggy?” he asks.

“No, but thank you. I have somewhere to be in ten minutes,” Peggy says. She glances at the clock on the wall. “Until the morning, then, Captain, Sergeant. Oh, and Steve? If you need something in the middle of the night? I’m probably not going to be available tonight.” With that she saunters off.

Bucky exhales in a low whistle. “Is she saying what I think she’s saying?” he asks Steve.

Steve takes a drink. “Yep.”

“Now what did she mean by ‘need something in the middle of the night’?” Bucky asks.

“Not here, Buck. Not here.”

 

* * *

 

Later, much later, they’re back in bed. Bucky’s got one hand in Steve’s hair and the other in her unbuttoned shirt when she pushes him away. He sits back, eyes glazed, and very confused.

“Right. Now’s the time to have that conversation,” Steve says, staring at the wall above Bucky’s head.

“What conversation?” Bucky asks.

“Babies,” Steve says shortly. “And how we’re not having one right now.”

Bucky can feel the heat in the room ooze out. “Babies.”

“Yes,” Steve says.

“But… you’re…” Bucky stutters, gesturing helplessly toward Steve’s midsection.

Steve shakes her head. “The serum fixed just about everything else, there’s no reason it wouldn’t have fixed that, too.”

Bucky stares, wide-eyed, at Steve for a few moments. “Well, I guess you did get ten inches and more than a hundred pounds bigger, too. So what are we going to do about it? I’m not fond of the idea of _not_ doing it.”

Steve’s lips twist into a smirk. She reaches underneath the cot into her uniform jacket. When she comes back up, she is pinching a foil packet between her index and middle fingers.

Bucky’s eyes get impossibly wider. “Where on God’s green earth did you get that?” he asks.

“Those,” Steve corrects him. “And Peggy’s a very good friend.”

“You didn’t,” Bucky says.

“Oh, I did,” Steve says, still smirking.

“You woke her up in the middle of the night to talk about prophylactics,” Bucky says.

“Absolutely. You don’t want to know how I got the idea that babies might happen,”

Bucky buries his face in his hands, “You’re probably right. But I’m going to ask anyway.”

“Phillips. At the end of his tirade. Did you not hear the ‘don’t get pregnant’ thing?” Steve says, cocking her head.

Bucky stares at the ceiling, “This is not happening.”

“Oh, it is. Peggy gave me a demonstration, too. But I think we could engage in a more _practical_ demonstration,” Steve says lewdly as she uses her free hand to flick the buttons of Bucky’s shirt open.

Even through the rising blush of his embarrassment, Bucky can feel the heat seep back into the space between them.

“It’s a different thing, perhaps. But probably less messy,” Steve says.

Bucky’s not sure how he ends up on his back with his clothes off and his mostly-clothed wife crawling up his chest with the condom between her teeth, but he’s pretty sure he’s not going to start complaining anytime soon.

And then Steve goes and breaks the mood by laughing.

“Oh my lord, Bucky. I can’t do it anymore. Sex kitten I am not,” Steve says, knees on either side of his chest, as tears run down her face from laughing so hard.

Bucky finishes the job of undressing her upper half, tossing the shirt and binding materials off into the dark as she shakes with gales of laughter. He plants his hands on either side of her waist and flips her over until she’s underneath him, and makes quick work of her pants and underwear.

Her giggles finally subside as he begins mouthing his way down her torso, turning into gasps, and then whimpers. She bites her fist.

“Can’t let people hear,” she says when he cocks an eyebrow at her.

“True,” he says. “Here, bite this.” He throws her his undershirt before returning to his task.

Bucky pauses to raise twin bites on her hips. He knows they’ll be gone by morning, but he likes to anyway. He uses his elbow to nudge Steve’s thighs apart before he trails a finger from her sternum to her center, and pushes gently in. Her hips buck up at the contact, and he smirks as he uses his free hand to hold her down. It’s more of a task than it used to be, she is significantly stronger than he is, but he also has her at a disadvantage. He adds a second finger and a special twist. And then his mouth.

 

* * *

 

Steve bites so hard into the shirt she thinks she might rip it. Bucky continues his ministrations until her back arches and she leaves handprints in the rails of the cot.

“That good, was I?” Bucky says, returning to the upper half of the cot. He takes the shirt from her and wipes his face with it.

“Ngh,” Steve says. She can see him gloating. “I’m… pretty sure… the serum enhanced more than… just my size.”

Bucky deflates a little.

“Buck. I left _handprints_ in the _metal bed._ You were _that good_ ,” she says, kissing the moue of distaste away from his face.

Steve cards her hands through Bucky’s hair. She’s always loved his hair. It’s dark and thick and soft and if he doesn’t style it, it’s just a little bit wavy. He purrs at the sensation.

He kisses his way up her neck into her hair, then down her nose to her lips again.

“All right. Tell me how to use this thing,” he says, holding the condom up.

Steve puts both hands on his chest and pushes him back until he’s sitting on his heels. Rather more forcefully than she meant to, since she has to grab his shoulder to keep him from toppling over.

“Sorry,” she says. She takes the foil packet from him and rips it open. Pulling the thing out, she grabs him and gives his cock a few strokes before she puts the condom over the tip. “Now you just roll it down.” Bucky’s eyes shut as she rolls it down. “How does it feel?”

“Strange. But familiar?” Bucky says. “I don’t know.” He plants his hands on Steve’s shoulders and pushes her back down. Lining himself up, he sinks all the way in on the first thrust. “Different, anyway.”

Steve rolls her hips experimentally. She’s met with a thrust, and then another. They sink into a slow rhythm as she runs her hands up and down the roll of Bucky’s spine. Suddenly her fingernails bite into his skin and his timing is thrown off. He tries to regain it, but they’re both too far gone. Silencing her noises against the ball of Bucky’s shoulder, Steve bites out her orgasm into his flesh.

A few jagged thrusts later, and Bucky spills into the latex, her name falling from his lips, then collapses on top of her.

He stays for a few moments. This was always something she enjoyed, and now that she can actually take his full weight, it is her favourite part. As he comes to his senses, Bucky pulls out of her.

In the dim light, she can see the red blush creep back up his chest.

 

* * *

 

“How do I take it off?” he asks.

Steve quickly demonstrates, and shoves it back in its wrapper before she tosses the whole package off into the night.

“Now, no babies,” she says.

“Mhmm. That’s good. At least for now,” Bucky says.

“Buck. That’s not a conversation I’m having with you right now,” Steve says. “And I’m cold.”

Bucky rises, hissing at the cold ground, and fetches a fresh undershirt. It’s one of his, and he knows it still smells like him. When Steve was little, she would wear his shirts as nightgowns. They practically fit her now, but it still raises the same protective instincts in him. He also grabs a clean pair of panties for Steve and boxers for himself.

He returns to the bed and hands her the clothes. As he pulls on the boxers, he sees Steve sniff the shirt before she pulls it over her head. Bucky smiles at that. 


	8. The Bunker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve gets kissed. Peggy takes pot shots. Bucky hears a story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These two. Sex in public places. A winning combination. As for Natalie Dormer's character, she was never named, but IMDB gave her name as "Pvt. Lorraine", so I named her Lorraine. Otherwise, it was Natalie Dormer Army Lady. Also, someone needs to get poor Peggy some better luck.

Steve and Bucky wander into SSR headquarters to the smell of burned hair. Bucky spots someone he knows, and goes to talk to them. Steve approaches a young blonde woman who is reading a magazine. After asking after Stark, she is essentially ignored. Until the woman turns around.

“Oh, sorry. You’re welcome to wait,” she says, putting the newspaper down. “I read about what you did. I’m Lorraine.”

“Steve,” Steve says. “Just doing what needed to be done.”

“It sounded like more than that. You rescued nearly 400 men,” she says, her voice changing. Steve’s not quite sure what the tone means, but she’s pretty sure she’s used it herself. On Bucky.

“Really, it’s not a big deal,” Steve says, leaning back from the woman, who has stood up.

Lorraine saunters toward her. “Tell that to their wives.”

“At least one of their wives is very, very happy that I went to get them,” Steve says. “And I’m not sure they were all married.”

“You’re a hero,” Lorraine says, fixing the ends of Steve’s collar.

“Well, it depends who…” Steve says.

“The women of America owe you,” Lorraine says, grabbing Steve’s tie. “And seeing as they’re not here to thank you…” With this, she drags Steve by the tie back behind a shelf.

And then kisses her.

Steve’s first instinct is to freeze. She’s only kissed two people in her whole life that weren’t related to her, and the one time with Bobby Marks had been in a game of Spin the Bottle and Bucky had beaten him up the next week.

Her next move is to bring her hands up to Lorraine’s shoulders to push her away. Unfortunately, the other woman interprets the move very differently and moves a hand to Steve’s hair.

Steve’s hands flap about for something to do when Peggy’s cough breaks the air. Lorraine drops Steve’s tie and glares at Peggy.

“Steve? What are you doing?” Peggy asks.

Steve jumps back. “She grabbed me!” she says.

“I was just thanking you,” Lorraine replies.

“Private. There are some things you just don’t do in a military headquarters. And kissing other people’s wives is one of them,” Peggy says before she grabs Steve’s arm and marches her away. Bucky follows them, his mouth agape.

Peggy drags her into a dark corner and shoves her against the wall. “What the bloody hell was that?” she hisses.

Steve tries to escape, but Bucky throws an arm in front of her. “Yes, Steve, what _was_ that?” he says, voice low and dangerous.

“She was talking to me about the rescue mission, and next thing I know, she has her hand on my tie and is shoving her tongue down my throat,” Steve says, eyes flitting between Peggy and Bucky’s faces.

Peggy rolls her eyes, “The sad part is, I believe you. Don’t you know when a woman is flirting with you?”

“I haven’t exactly had much experience in that department,” Steve says.

“Of course you haven’t,” Peggy sighs. “I’ll let you two do whatever it is you two need to do. Stark’s ready for you now. I’ll be back here in fifteen minutes. Please be ready to go downstairs.” She gives them both a penetrating glance and wanders away.

Bucky turns to Steve and plants his other arm on the wall. “So, you still don’t know when other people find you attractive?” he hisses in her ear.

She shakes her head mutely.

“Let me give you a lesson then. It looks a little bit like this,” Bucky says. He tilts her chin up to see his face. And he’s leering at her. Her breath quickens.

“And if someone does this, they’re probably trying to get into your pants,” he says, cupping her face with both hands and kissing her until her knees buckle. He pulls away.

“Now, if anyone else does _this_ , they’re going to have their hands forcibly removed.” He resumes kissing her, one hand supporting himself on the wall while the other loosens her belt, flicks the button open, and pushes the zipper down. His hand plunges inside, and Steve’s hips buck forward into his when his fingers come into contact with her sensitive flesh. She can feel the evidence of his arousal hard against her thigh, but when she moves to do something about it, Bucky growls into her mouth. He plunges two fingers into her, and the heel of his palm presses into her most sensitive place. The movements of his hand are cemented by thrusts of his hips against his wrist.

Steve buries her fingers in his hair and tries her best not to bite off his tongue as he winds her up. Heat coils in her stomach, and she can feel her knees starting to buckle again. Her entire weight now rests on Bucky’s hand, and with one final flick, the heat spreads from head to toe and Bucky is swallowing her noises. She whites out for a few seconds. When she comes to, Bucky has removed his hand from her pants and is licking it clean. She shivers a little, both at the motion and at the possessiveness that’s plain in Bucky’s eyes.

“I love you so much,” he mutters.

“Point taken,” she says.

“Good,” Bucky replies.

“Now how are you going to explain the stain on your pants?” Steve says.

 

* * *

 

Bucky’s drooling over the frame of a motorcycle while Stark shows Steve the prototypes for her equipment. She notices the dome shaped shield under the table and pulls it out.

“You have expensive taste, ma’am,” he says. “That right there is the entire world’s supply of vibranium. Stronger than steel, a third the weight, and completely vibration proof.”

“Are you two done yet? I’m sure the Captain and Sergeant Barnes have somewhere to be.” Peggy asks.

Steve hoists the silver disk and smiles at Peggy. “What do you think?”

Peggy glares at her, and grabs a gun from the table next to her. Steve has a split second to raise the shield before Peggy fires off three rounds. “It works,” she says shortly, before turning to leave.

Everyone in the bunker watches her walk out.

Stark comes up next to Steve. Steve hands him a piece of paper. “I had some ideas about the uniform.”

“Whatever you want, ma’am,” he says, taking it from her. Neither of their eyes leave Peggy until she’s out the door.

“One more request,” Steve says, turning to face Stark. “I need a binder. Something that’s light and flexible and non-constricting.”

“Way ahead of you, Captain,” Stark says, gesturing to another table full of what looks like metal undershirts. Steve grabs every one of them, and goes into a corner to try them on.

The first two are absolutely ridiculous. The third does nothing. The fourth through sixth ones feel like the linen bandages. The seventh one wouldn’t have fit her even _before_ the serum. But the eighth one. The eighth one is the eighth wonder of the world. She returns to where Stark and Bucky are talking with the pile of ill-fitting binders in one hand and the stuff she had been using in the other.

“I thought you might pick that one. It has another advantage,” Stark says, appraising her.

“And what would that be?” Steve asks.

“It’s bullet proof.”

(That turns out to be useful more than once.)

 

* * *

 

Bucky and Steve are sitting on the top of a building later. It’s dark and the lights of the city shine out below them. Bucky takes a drink of the beer he’s holding. Steve kicks her legs against the side of the building, heels clicking on the brick surface. She plants her hands behind her and leans back to look at the sky. “It’s strange,” she says finally.

“What?” Bucky asks.

“The sky. It’s the same sky. I know that. The same moon shines over the empty apartment sitting in Brooklyn. Which I made arrangements to pay for another two years for, by the way. But here it’s different. Or maybe we’re different,” Steve says. “Do you miss Brooklyn?” Steve asks, resting her head on his shoulder. The ends of her hairscarf brush against his neck.

“All the time,” Bucky says. “But it was worse before. I didn’t have Brooklyn. But I also didn’t have _you._ And it was you I missed the most. Of course, the Captain America stories got over here, but I never had the time to see the movies. Would’ve been a bit of a nasty shock if I had.”

Steve laughs. “It was a bit of a nasty shock anyway.”

“Yeah, it was,” Bucky takes a drag of the cigarette he conned one of the men out of. “Still, at least you’re less breakable now. It could lead to some interesting situations.” He looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

“It already _has_ led to some interesting situations,” Steve says.

“Well…” Bucky starts. “It’s hardly my fault. You go around kissing strange women.”

“She grabbed me and you know it. Apparently I’m hard to keep hands off of.”

“Damn right you are.”

“You two are hopeless,” a voice says from behind them.

They both turn to look, and see Peggy climbing over the top of the ladder.

“Probably,” Bucky says.

Steve, at least, has the shame to look embarrassed.

“I came to… apologize for my behavior earlier,” Peggy says.

“You came to apologize for _your_ behavior?” Steve asks, turning around. “I think if anyone’s apologizing, it’s me.”

“Why don’t we all just say we’re sorry and have a drink?” Bucky suggests.

“We only have the one beer, Buck,” Steve says.

“I never said you should do the drinking. You can’t even get drunk!” Bucky chortles.

“Unfortunately,” Steve mutters. “Side effect of the serum. Not that I’m complaining, mind you,” she says louder.

“It’s probably for the good of the public,” Bucky says. “When you were small and tipsy, you nearly broke a window.”

“It was the _one time_!” Steve exclaims. “I always have the safety of the public first in my mind.”

“Right,” Bucky says, drawing the word out.

“Well,” Peggy says. “I’d known Steve for a week when she jumped on a grenade.”

The night air seems to crystallize around them as Bucky stiffens next to Steve.

“You did _what_?” he asks.

Now Steve wishes she could get drunk. “It was a dummy grenade!”

“You didn’t know that at the time,” Peggy says, taking a draw of the bottle Bucky has seemingly forgotten hangs from his fingers.

“You jumped on a grenade,” Bucky repeats.

“Yes. But it was in the middle of a crowded Army base! People could have died!” Steve defends herself.

Bucky looks to the sky for strength.

“It was that move that got her picked for the Captain America position, too,” Peggy puts in helpfully.

Bucky’s eyes flick down to Steve. “I can’t believe some of the shit you did while I was away.”

“She jumped out of a plane into anti-aircraft fire,” Peggy continues.

Steve shoots her a look that says _Would you shut the fuck up?_ “Well, that one saved a lot of lives,” Steve says.

“Anti- _aircraft_ fire?” Bucky asks. “What… why?”

Steve’s had enough. She stands up, tugging her skirt down as she does. “If you two are done. James Barnes, you’d best be _grateful_ I jumped out of that plane for you. It saved your _fucking life._ ” With that, she storms off.

Peggy turns to Bucky. His eyes are wide as they watch Steve descend the ladder.

“I guess I laid it on a little thick,” she says.

“Yes, but Steve probably deserved it. Give her a few hours. She should be fine by morning. And if she’s not, I’ll apologize for you,” Bucky says.

Peggy rises to leave. “I have a meeting early in the morning. And a date tomorrow night. I should probably get to bed before midnight. But for what it’s worth, I was about to jump on that grenade too. Steve has a great heart.”

Bucky’s reply, “I know,” follows Peggy.

He returns to the edge of the building, takes another drag on his cigarette, and contemplates the strange twists his life has taken. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we've reached the halfway mark. Exactly what happens yet is still kind of a mystery to me. 
> 
> But it's probably now I should disclose the fact that I have three planned sequels. (A Peggy POV oneshot set during the first few years after the plane goes down in the Arctic, an Avengers replacement, and a CATWS replacement. With a different Winter Soldier.)


	9. The Shield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve learns to use her shield for different purposes. Bucky hosts a fundraiser. The Commandos stage an intervention. Col. Phillips gives an order he never thought would come out of his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been affectionately dubbed "The Awkward Chapter From Hell". Steve and Bucky's bunny-like approach to sex gets some attention. And everyone sees too much of Steve's ass.

The pain surprises her. The HYDRA soldiers have been engaging them in a firefight for nearly an hour, now. She thought they had them all pinned down, but apparently there was at least one they didn’t have eyes on, because even though Steve was covering herself with her shield, her thighs weren’t covered. The bullet rips through the outside of her thigh and exits to slam into the wall behind them. As she collapses in shock, Bucky quickfires and takes out the enemy. The other Commandos surge over the wall and end the fight quickly.

Steve, meanwhile, has regained her senses and is cannibalizing her shirt for a bandage. She wobbles to her feet, using the shield for support, and finally peers over the wall. What she sees doesn’t surprise her. Dugan and Morita are dragging Bucky off the corpse of the man who shot Steve.

“Bucky,” Steve says. Bucky doesn’t notice her. “BUCKY!” she tries again. “ _James Buchanan Barnes you look at me this instant or I swear on my mother’s grave I will not sleep with you for a week._ ”

That gets his attention. “Steve?” he croaks.

“Buck. It’s just a flesh wound. See?” Steve does a twirl for him that ends with her wincing. “Well, it’s a bit painful. But I’m not dead yet.”

The men turn away, suddenly finding the rubble very interesting as Bucky crushes Steve to his chest and kisses her within an inch of her life.

“Did we check to make sure those were the last of them?” Steve says a few minutes later, having finally extracted herself from Bucky’s clutches.

“Yes, Captain,” Dugan says.

“Good,” Steve replies. “Because I’m going to need help with this shield. I don’t fancy being shot again.”

They make it back into camp before nightfall, by which time Bucky has already concocted a scheme to get as many people involved as possible. Steve’s sitting in the mess tent, just finishing her third plate of mystery meat when Bucky comes in.

Or more accurately, is _carried_ in. He’s holding a sign.

 

_THROW ROCKS AT CAPTAIN AMERICA._  
 _TWENTY FIVE CENTS A HANDFUL.  
_ _All Proceeds Benefit Wives and Children of Fallen Men_

“You didn’t,” Steve says when the crowd sets him down next to her.

“You asked for help. Since you don’t want to be shot at, we figured we’d let our best marksmen throw rocks at you,” Bucky says.

“Buck. You’re one of the best marksmen here,” Steve says dryly.

“I know!” Bucky _fucking giggles._ “If you’re going to get shot, we’re all going to throw rocks at you until you learn how to duck.”

Steve covers her face. “When do we start?”

And that’s how Steve found herself up in a tree, curled hedgehog-style behind her shield.

They’ve raised a hundred dollars, and Steve is covered in tiny bruises from pebbles being thrown at her. She finally manages to get ninety nine out of a hundred blocked, and then Bucky sent her up into this damn tree. She peeks over the edge of the shield and sees Bucky levelling another stone. As he lobs it, she shifts her weight so that it ricochets off the shield and whacks him in the forehead. A little tip further and she falls out of the tree, landing completely on the shield. Vibration proof, Stark said.

It is.

During the next mission, she isn’t shot at all.

 

* * *

 

The next lesson comes when Steve accidentally throws the shield at a HYDRA soldier. It hits him in the head, bounces off the beam of the warehouse, and bounces back to land at Steve’s feet. She and Bucky glance at each other before she picks it up again and flings it, this time with purpose. It hits three men before skittering off into the distance.

Ten minutes later, they’ve cleared the room, and Steve goes in search of the shield. She’s just grabbed it when she’s seized by the shoulders and dragged between two stacks of pallets. The smell of Bucky surrounds her as he makes quick work of her pants, other hand clamped over her mouth. He spins her around and jerks his head. She nods, but raises an eyebrow. He fishes around in his pocket and his smile is positively lewd as he extracts not one but five rubbers.

The look on her face must be astonished, because he jerks a thumb at himself and mouths “Boy Scout”. She rolls her eyes. He takes that as the consent it is and flips her back around to bend her over barrel.

So that’s how it is.

Steve shimmies her trousers down past her knees, and she can hear Bucky’s muffled cursing as he gets stuck on the straps of his belts. She taps her foot impatiently. Finally, Bucky manages to get his pants undone enough, and he seizes Steve by the hips. A giggle escapes her mouth as he fumbles with the hem of her shirt and jacket, it turns into a swallowed moan as he sinks in with one quick thrust. She sinks her teeth into the leather of her jacket sleeve and tries not to move the barrel forward with the force of Bucky’s hips.

Unfortunately for the rest of the Commandos, their attempts at quietness succeed.

“Cap,” Morita calls. “We’ve done a sweep, and it’s all clear over he—OH SHIT. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn’t see anything I’ll just go back over here.”

“Oh god,” Steve mutters.

“Just Bucky, dear,” Bucky says.

“Not you, you idiot,” Steve hisses.

A few minutes later, Steve’s as red as her shield as she and Bucky file back out of the corner. He’s smirking.

They are greeted by a solid wall of Howling Commando, arms all crossed.

“Listen, Cap, Barnes,” one of them starts.

“It’s not that we don’t get it,” another continues.

“We really, really do.”

“But this has to stop.”

“It’s awkward and embarrassing for everyone.”

“Get a room. Or a tent. Or a bloody broom closet.”

“Please just stop letting us see that much of you.”

“We like our commanding officer.”

“We just don’t want to see her ass.”

Steve and Bucky glance at each other. “Sorry,” she mutters.

“Now can we please get back to hot coffee?”

 -

Steve takes a few days between missions this time. She’s set up a shelled out warehouse as a practice facility. The shield ricochets so well that she’s actually figured out how to boomerang it back to her.

(She and Bucky also find a few places in the warehouse to do their own ricocheting.)

They’re also waiting for Col. Phillips to arrive for a briefing, so the Commandos raid the now-empty town for anything that could be useful. They find a surprisingly large amount of ladies’ panties.

Bucky snags a few.

 

* * *

 

Phillips arrives in the morning. He brings Peggy with him. She asks after Steve and find her and Bucky perfecting something Peggy’s pretty sure the shield was never intended for.

The side of the warehouse where Steve had been practicing now has three foot high letters carved in the side. Inside a heart. _SRB+JBB._ With an arrow through it.

Peggy steps inside, very carefully. She hears banging coming from behind a partial wall and cautiously steps around it. They are not, as she had feared, having sex. Instead, Bucky is goading Steve into cutting another piece of rebar in half with the edge of her shield.

And then they turn, and Peggy can see Bucky’s hand. Which is down Steve’s pants.

She quietly extracts herself.

Unfortunately for Steve and Bucky, they don’t hear or see her. And because she doesn’t bring them back, Col. Phillips comes looking.

And Bucky’s got a lot more than his hands down Steve’s pants. She’s fully against the wall, and there are head-shaped dents in the concrete. Phillips stops for a moment, mouth agape.

“When you two are done with that, we’re having a briefing in the post office,” he says in his best command voice.

Steve and Bucky freeze and stare at each other.

Phillips turns on his heel and walks out of the room. They stare at his retreating back.

 -

After the briefing, Phillips tells Steve and Bucky to stay behind. Everyone leaving shoots them a knowing look.

Phillips takes his time. He rolls up the map, files his papers, and takes a deep breath before turning back to them.

Steve is standing at attention, arms folded behind her back, feet spread and planted. Bucky has his thumbs hooked in his pockets.

“It has come to my attention that you two have been having sexual intercourse in inappropriate places. I’ve had complaints from your men and Agent Carter. I _walked in_ on you two _myself,_ ” Phillips thunders. “I never thought I’d have to give this order to soldiers, but here it is. You two are not to engage in _any_ conjugal activities on missions unless it is in the privacy of your own bed. The men are fully prepared to chaperone you if necessary. And believe me, they are going to follow _this_ order to the letter. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve mutters, staring at the ground. The flush on her face probably extends all the way down her chest.

“And you, Sergeant?” Phillips asks.

“Understood, sir,” Bucky says. At least he has the sense to look a little mollified.

“Good. I never want to have this conversation again. Dismissed,” Phillips says.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The newly minted 15 chapter thing is just an estimate. It will probably go just a little bit shorter than that, but then again, this fic has a mind of its own and tends to get away from me.


	10. The Precipice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Commandos have to chaperone. Steve has trouble sleeping. Bucky falls out of a train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter. I hated it in the beginning. But I figured out what it was eventually. And what it turned out to be is dark as hell. And also exceedingly rude. Bucky finally tells Steve what happened with Zola.

Steve is fond of Bucky’s jacket. It fits him well, and the color is nearly the same color as his eyes. Plus, and no one mentions this, the tiny wings on his shoulders match her helmet.

She’s made him keep it on more than once while they were having sex.

(And it’s warm, and Bucky smells nice, and if she wants to snuggle in her husband’s jacket while he’s sleeping and she’s on watch, no one is there to stop her.)

It’s after another mission, and she and Bucky are making out against a tree when they’re interrupted. Gabe Jones is standing a discreet distance away, and he clears his throat.

“You _are_ going to take this seriously, aren’t you?” Bucky groans.

“Yes, sir,” Gabe says.

The next time, he actually has to sit on Bucky’s pant leg to keep him from going anywhere.

It’s a good thing the Commandos don’t know about the time they actually did it in the middle of a battle. (It wasn’t their proudest moment.)

 

* * *

 

They’re granted leave, and Stark flies all the Commandos to London for three days. He says something about the piece of tech that Steve brought back from the first HYDRA base, but it flies over Steve’s head. She’s not stupid, but some things that man says make no sense.

Peggy has actually come with them on this flight, something about unfinished business in London. (Steve thinks her beau was posted to England, and Peggy wants to see him.) She’s currently deep in conversation with Falsworth.

Steve rises and walks up to the cockpit where Stark is piloting. She engages him in a discussion about the shield. And probably tells him some things about its vibration absorption qualities he never wanted to know. As she returns to her seat beside Bucky, he’s chuckling.

There’s no way he could have heard that.

 

* * *

 

Steve shoves her hands over her face and nearly pulls out her hair. The logistics of this mission are ridiculous. They’re swinging down a wire onto a moving train.

But apparently Dr. Zola is a high priority target and needs to be captured alive if at all possible.

And she does what the army tells her to do.

Steve is under no illusions about her status. She was created as a weapon, and the command is using her as such. Instead pointing a gun at a target and pulling a trigger, they point _her_ at a target and give her an order.

She just happens to have some of the world’s best at her back. And one of them in her bed.

Steve turns back to where Bucky is sleeping peacefully in the bedroll they share. She’s sitting at her portable desk poring over maps and statistics and reports and all she wants to do is sleep. But that’s not going to happen tonight. It’s hard to sleep on the night before you might die.

Steve doesn’t sleep much.

Turning back to her papers, she shuffles them, not really reading any of them. Finally, she extinguishes the small lantern she was using and folds her hands on the desk and puts her head down. Maybe if she shuts her eyes she’ll get some sleep.

No luck to be found there.

She finally rises, deciding to go outside. Since she’s wearing little more than underwear and Bucky’s shirt, she pulls on pants, her jacket, and boots. Quickly unfastening the catch to the tent, she slips out into the quiet cold night. They’re cold camped in a small grove in the high Alps, and she wants nothing more than a warm fire and some goddamned hot coffee. The cliff’s edge is a few hundred yards away, and she walks to it, tucking her hands into her pockets as she stares down into the seemingly bottomless chasm.

She hears Bucky’s soft bootfalls before he reaches her. Apparently, the men think he’s nearly silent, and Steve attributes many things to her enhanced senses. He rests his arms around hers and reaches into her pockets to surround her hands with his. He pulls her back into him and rests his chin on her shoulder. His breath warms her cheek.

“You know what we’re doing tomorrow, right?” she asks after a long period of silence.

“Attempting the capture of one Dr. Arnim Zola, of Swiss nationality, lately known to be working with Johann Schmidt, commander of the Nazi Deep Science Division, better known as HYDRA,” Bucky says, reciting the first line of a briefing they had all read earlier that day. Or was it yesterday?

“Bucky,” Steve sighs.

“And also the twisted bastard who tortured hundreds of men, all of whom are presumed dead with one exception,” Bucky spits.

Steve turns to face him. “Bucky, you can sit this one out if you want to,” she says.

“And miss the look on his face when I show up? No way in hell. I want the bastard to know his twisted serum worked and not only am I still alive, I’m still fucking kicking.” Bucky’s face is a snarl.

Steve’s eyebrows knit together, “Bucky, what did you just say?”

Bucky turns away from her and kicks a rock that skitters away and off the cliff. He sighs, plunges his hands into his pockets and looks out into the alpine night. “I’m still not completely sure what they did to me.”

Steve walks up beside him and pushes her shoulder into his. He slings an arm around her and pulls her into his side. “I picked up some German when they captured us. I’m good with languages, you know? Not much, but enough to understand some of the things they were saying. They talked about Captain America a lot. How they’re glad that the traitor Erskine only got one experiment off before they shot him. Of course, at the time, I had no idea they were talking about my wife. Not much I could have done about it anyway.

“They injected me with _something._ Zola and Schmidt were whispering one day about how ‘this one was going to work’. That’s about the time I started blacking out regularly. I think they were trying to brainwash me. All I could think to do was repeat my name, rank, and serial number. I didn’t dare breathe a word of you. They spoke in English sometimes, usually to taunt me. Tell me I’m never going home, that kind of shit. I didn’t want them to get their mouths around the idea of you. Twist you.”

He shoves his hand at his face, wiping away the tears that stubbornly made their way to the surface.

Steve takes a deep breath. “When they shot Dr. Erskine, they took the last vial of serum that was leftover from me. It shattered when I slammed the HYDRA agent on the pavement. If I hadn’t. If I had let him get away. Oh god, Bucky. If I had just let him get away, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Bucky turns on her, seizing her shoulders in both hands. His face is an inch from hers. “Steve. This is _not_ your fault. If you had let him get away, someone would have been injected with your brand of the serum. There would have been Nazis with your abilities. Or, worse, there would have been Allied soldiers perverted to their ways. Brainwashing is a powerful thing, and I saw the man Zola had before me. He wasn’t dead when they took him out. He was marching with them. He _became_ one of them. For whatever reason, I could take the serum they gave me. The brainwashing was only beginning. I’m still _me_ because you caught that man. Remember that.”

Steve exhales a stuttering breath. Tears of her own are rolling down her cheeks, and Bucky brushes them away with his thumb.

“Dammit, Stevie. I love you so goddamn much. I love you the way you are, but sometimes I wish you were small again. It was so much easier to protect you when you couldn’t lift me,” he sighs as he pulls her into a hug. She melts against his chest.

He can hear the muffled sounds of her sobbing in his shoulder, interspersed with “I love you too you stupid idiot.”

Bucky smiles sadly.

“Come back to bed, Steve,” he murmurs.

She follows willingly.

 

* * *

 

They’re on a windswept bluff above train tracks. Morita is listening to the radio. Steve is taking deep calming breaths.

“Remember the time I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?” Bucky asks, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“And I threw up?” Steve replies, checking a third time to make sure her shield is secure.

“This wouldn’t happen to be payback, would it?” Bucky says.

“Now why would I do that?”

“Cap? Zola’s on the train. And they’ve just gotten permission to open the throttle,” Morita reports.

“We have a window of about ten seconds, and then we’ll be flat as bugs,” Steve says, hooking her handles over the wire. That had been a trick to set up. She grabs as tight as she can and steps off the cliff. The first few seconds of freefall are exhilarating until she lands boots-first on the train top, Bucky close behind her. The adrenaline sets in then.

Now, Steve is very aware of her body. It comes with being enhanced by serum. But being on top of a moving train is a slightly terrifying experience no matter how conscious of your movements you are.

They duck into the train while Gabe remains on the roof. As they’re looking around, the doors slam shut between them, and Steve fires blankly at the room. Bucky’s doing the same on the other side of the door. She gets off enough rounds to stop the man firing the laser cannons and busts the door open.

Bucky has run out of bullets and looks at her desperately. She tosses him her gun and bursts into the room, shield first. They take the man down and turn to each other.

“I had him on the ropes,” Bucky says, echoing the conversation they had had what seemed like years ago.

“Bucky, I love you, but I was about 3 inches away from throwing that guy out the door,” Steve replies.

The cannon blast takes her by surprise, and the ricochet off the shield opens a rift in the side of the train.

 

* * *

 

Bucky sees Steve separated from her shield and thrown backwards. He seizes the shield, unconsciously registering how light it is as he thrusts his arm through the straps and pulls it up in front of him. He fires over the top of it, and the man fires a blast back at him.

Bucky loses his grip on the shield as he is thrown toward the hole in the train. Steve throws the shield at the man, and yanks her helmet off.

Bucky is hanging onto the side of the train by his fingertips. Steve grabs a rope and climbs out onto the edge of the train.

“ _Bucky!”_ she yells. “Hang on! Grab my hand!”

Bucky reaches for her.

He feels his grip loosen.

The bar he’s holding snaps off.

He falls.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I'm really, really rude. Sexy fun times next chapter!


	11. The Calm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky screams. Steve goes to a bar. Bucky falls over a precipice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHA. The reactions to the last chapter have kept me cackling for days.

Bucky’s horrified screams as he fell will echo in Steve’s dreams for days.

 

* * *

 

However, they will also echo in his, because she manages to drop the rope and snag a loop around his ankle. It snaps taut, and he screams in pain, but she quickly hauls him up and pulls him inside the train. They collapse against the whole wall in a shaking pile of serum-enhanced limbs.

Steve runs her hands over every square inch of Bucky she can reach, murmuring nonsense into his hair as he quivers against her.

“Buck, we have to get up now. Gabe’s probably got a gun trained on Zola right now,” Steve says after a few minutes. “It’s all right, now. You’re safe. We’re both safe.”

Bucky takes a few shuddering breaths and nods.

Steve rises and pulls Bucky up with her. The rope broke his ankle, she’s sure of it, so she pulls the loop off him, throws his arm over her shoulder, and starts off toward the front of the train.

“Steve, wait, your shield,” Bucky croaks.

They bend to collect it and Bucky shoves it on his arm.

Together they slowly make their way to the engine. Gabe has a gun pointed at the engineer and Zola, and looks very much like he would like to use it.

“Well, Dr. Zola,” Steve starts, but gets no further before Bucky’s let go of her, hopped forward, and smashed his fist into Zola’s nose.

Zola goes down and Bucky continues beating him while Steve and Gabe look around. Steve glances at her wrist, as if checking the time. The engineer stares on in fascinated horror. Finally, when Zola’s a whimpering mass on the floor, Bucky rises, shaking out his blood-covered knuckles.

“Steve,” he starts.

“Gabe, did you see Dr. Zola try to escape?” Steve asks, turning to look at the man.

“Cap, I think I saw him go for my gun,” Gabe says, waggling the machine for emphasis.

They both give Bucky a very significant look.

 

* * *

 

Later, it might even be three days later, they’re sitting in the bar again. A few things are different this time.

First, they have no immediate missions. Until such time as Zola gives up Schmidt’s plans, the Commandos are sitting tight.

Second, Bucky, despite having enhanced healing time, has his ankle (which turned out to be only very badly sprained, not broken or fractured) in a plaster cast. The doctors aren’t sure how long Bucky is going to take to heal, but he has been issued a crutch and told to restrict his activity for the next two weeks. (Steve knows he’s flagrantly ignoring these instructions, and if they get a mission, he’s going if he has to stow away on the plane.)

Third, and possibly most noticeably, Steve is wearing a skirt.

After the incident on the rooftop the day she had been kissed by Private Lorraine, Peggy had clued her into a little black market that existed in the SSR camp. The SSR had an unusually high female to male ratio for an army regiment, and as such, things like skirts, fancy underwear, perfume, and makeup were in high demand. Peggy had showed her to a woman who requested to remain anonymous, and Steve had acquired a dress and stockings that actually fit her. A bottle of liquor from Bucky’s secret stash had also bought her rouge and mascara. She also slipped on her wedding ring from where it had been hanging with her dogtags.

Steve knows she can’t get drunk, but it doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy the taste of the liquor. (Not that she does, she’s drinking something much rarer over here, good American Coke.) Bucky excuses himself to gimp off to the restroom. His stool is immediately occupied by a large man who smells like he’s had a few too many drinks.

“’S a pretty lady like you doing in a bar like these?” he slurs.

“Not interested, buddy,” Steve says, waving her left hand in his face.

“Rings don’t mean a lot when you’re in the middle of a war zone,” he says, waggling his eyebrows. “M’name’s Von, but you can call me whatever you want.”

“I believe my friend said she wasn’t interested,” a clipped English voice says from behind Steve.

“Oh ho ho, so you have a friend as pretty as you are,” Von says. “Do you two come as package deal?”

“All right, that’s it,” Steve says, slamming her drink down and sloshing it over the bartop. She seizes the man by his arms and pins him to the wall. The bar goes silent.

“I’m not fucking interested in you. Peggy’s not either. Go home. You’re drunk. Or at least find someone in your own league. If I see you in here again tonight, I will personally kick your sorry ass, and then I’ll let my husband take a turn. You don’t want to know what the last person he beat up looks like,” Steve hisses in his ear. She drops his arms, and practically chases him out of the bar.

Peggy starts clapping, and then the whole bar picks it up. Several of the Commandos whistle. Steve sits back down. The bartender fills her drink.

The stool that Bucky hadn’t been sitting in is now vacant, and Peggy sits down next to Steve, gesturing to her drink. “Are those my shoes?” she asks.

“Yes they are,” Steve says into her glass. “You have exceptionally large feet.”

“Thanks,” Peggy says.

Bucky takes that moment to return. “What was all the fuss about?” he asks.

“Oh, Steve didn’t take kindly to being hit on, so she slammed a bloke against a wall,” Peggy says airily.

Bucky sighs, “Did you at least threaten him?”

Steve nods, “I told him if I saw him again, I’d kick his sorry ass, and then let you take a turn.”

Bucky looks at Steve in a way that Peggy finds suddenly very uncomfortable to observe. “I’m going to… go… over there,” she says. “Don’t get anything on my shoes.”

Steve tosses a bill on the counter and follows Bucky out the back door, giggling as they trip over nearly everything in their path.

 

* * *

 

They’re kissing by the time the door slams shut behind them. Bucky starts to back Steve into the wall, when she stops him.

“I paid well for this blouse. Give me your jacket and be careful with the stockings,” she says.

Bucky drops his crutch and nearly trips over his cast to fumble the jacket off. It’s not as big on Steve as it would have been a year ago, but the sight still does wonders for Bucky’s arousal. In those heels she’s taller than he is, but she still allows herself to be pushed against the wall, and kissed within an inch of her life. A change of her mind has her pushing Bucky back. He steps back, confused, and watches as she wobbles on first one foot, then the other, pulling off the shoes and stockings. She shoves the latter in the pockets of Bucky’s jacket, and sets the former to the side, as if they were a skittish kitten.

She grabs Bucky by the sweater, and pulls him back to her, now at a more comfortable kissing height for them both. His fingers tangle in her perfectly coifed hair, and she returns the favor, making his hair practically stand up straight. His hands flit down her neck and back, and settle themselves on her hips as he begins to kiss her slowly and sweetly.

“Bucky,” she murmurs as she pulls her face away from his for a moment. “As much as I’m into that, we’re in an alley behind a bar in the middle of a war.”

He silently takes the hint and the fingers in her hips dig in, and then fly down to the hem of her skirt. They hook around her thighs and begin to hoist her, but Steve bats them away while she fumbles with the fastenings of his pants. He busies himself nudging her skirt out of the way and sinking two fingers directly into her.

She’s not wearing underwear.

“I may have been planning for this to happen,” she mutters beyond a gasp.

“Of course you were,” Bucky replies, sealing his lips to hers as she finally frees his pants and rolls a condom (that seemingly appeared out of nowhere) onto him.

“Now hurry the fuck—” Steve gasps as, in one fluid motion, Bucky picks her up, throws her back against the wall, and thrusts in. “Up!” This last is a squeak.

She locks her feet behind his waist and pulls his face back to hers as he sets a quick, nearly violent, rhythm. She’s glad for the extra padding of his jacket, especially when he begins to lose his pace and the motions of her shoulders against the wall are erratic. One of his hands flies from its position on the wall by her head to slide under her skirt and press at her clit. She nearly screams at the contact, but Bucky silences her with a particularly fervent kiss.

The heat snakes its way from Steve’s core to her extremities and she comes with a whimper.

But Bucky’s not done yet. He eases her through her aftershocks, and then his thrusts become persistent once again, and Steve can feel herself climbing toward another spiralling climax.

As she reaches it, her vision goes white, then black, and the pull of her muscles on him sends Bucky over the precipice immediately following her.

She drops her feet to the ground as he sways on his, and winces at the rough gravel on her bare soles. Peggy’s shoes find their way back onto her feet, and she returns Bucky’s jacket to him. She can see him wincing as he reclaims his crutch.

“That probably wasn’t the best idea on that ankle, was it?” she asks.

“Steve. Shut up.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think I'd actually let him fall of a train, did you? Psh.


	12. The Plane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve gets punched. Peggy blows shit up. Bucky and Steve make a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. The last chapter. Yes. Oh, and the ending is even ruder than Chapter 10's. (Please don't beat me.) 
> 
> I also wrote [Steve and Bucky's wedding](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2218428/chapters/4864797).

“You really think that’s the best plan?” Bucky asks.

“What, driving right up to the front gate doesn’t seem like a good plan to you?” Steve asks.

“No, not really. It seems like a good way to get yourself killed,” Bucky says. “Or at the very least, captured.”

“Ah, but that’s the point,” Steve says.

 

* * *

 

Steve’s adrenaline is high. A fiery motorcycle ride followed by a fight with everyone else trying to kill her and then she’s grabbed and taken to see the Red Skull himself. The punches to the gut are quite spectacular, actually. She had forgotten how strong Schmidt was. The dent in her original shield should have given her some hint, but Steve’s pretty sure she’s going to have bruises for days, and her bruises heal fast.

Schmidt’s going on and on about arrogance and serums and gods and wars of nations, and Steve really just wants him to shut up. Luckily for her, the Commandos take that moment to crash through the windows. Morita fires on the guards and they go down. Bucky, on the other hand, shoots the gun out of Schmidt’s hands then _punches_ him in the face. Schmidt reels, then turns and hastily exits the room as Bucky doubles over and hisses in pain.

“Really, Buck? You punched the guy with the literal red head in the head?” Steve asks.

“Yes, and it fucking hurts,” Bucky growls through his teeth.

Morita tosses Steve her shield and they all run after Schmidt. An explosion rocks the building and signals the arrival of the cavalry.

In pursuit of Schmidt, they suddenly reach a pile of debris that’s too high to jump over.

“We don’t have the time to climb it!” Morita shouts.

“You two, go around and tell Phillips that this way is blocked,” Steve replies, gesturing to them. She then turns to the pile and sizes it up, then glances at Bucky critically.

“Oh, Steve. You aren’t,” Bucky says, backing away.

“Do you want to go with them?” Steve asks.

“No,” Bucky whines.

“Then land on your feet,” Steve says.

She steps back and braces herself on the pile of rubble. Bucky takes a few more steps away, then with a running start, he puts one foot on her shield. As he starts to lift off, she follows his leap with a lift, and he sails over the top. She hears a muffled thump, a yelp, and loud cursing, and then, “I’m all right.” She follows Bucky’s path, and leaps over the pile, nearly landing on top of him. They take up a run after Schmidt, who now has a substantial lead. As they round a corner, a man with more laser cannons steps in front of them.

Steve pulls Bucky behind the shield with her, and the blast bounces off. As she turns back to shoot him, he’s not standing there anymore. And Schmidt’s head is disappearing behind closing blast doors. Steve throws the shield to jam them, and turns to see Peggy standing there, holding a Tommy gun.

“Thanks,” Steve says, gesturing to the man lying prone.

“Weren’t you…” Peggy says.

“Oh, yes, that,” Steve says, and follows Bucky, who has already ducked under the shield and is continuing pursuit.

Steve yanks the shield out of the door and quickly catches up to her husband. They enter the hangar, and it’s evident that the Allied forces are winning, but she can also see Schmidt climb up into a huge plane.

She sets off across the room, hoping against hope that she can catch it before it takes off. She also knows that even with his serum, there is no way Bucky can keep up with her, so she shoots him an apologetic look as she sprints across the room at top speed, punching a few HYDRA soldiers for good measure on her way by. She hears Bucky’s anguished cry of her name as she leaves him behind, but there’s no time for broken hearts in battle. At least that’s what she tells herself to make her feel better. She’s nearly caught up to the plane when Schmidt gives it extra power and it rolls away from her.

Then she hears a screech, an engine, and angry curses that surround her name. Schmidt’s car pulls up next to her, Phillips in the drivers’ seat, Peggy in the back, and Bucky in the passenger seat.

“Get in!” Phillips shouts.

She shrugs and jumps over the door to land in Bucky’s lap. Phillips floors it and the car squeals away.

“Were you really going to leave me?” Bucky asks.

“Sorry, Buck,” Steve says. “But…”

“Yeah, I know. Just don’t do it again,” Bucky says.

“I don’t want to know what you two get up to, but Rogers, if you leave him behind, we’re going to be cleaning up the mess, so just keep the problem out of our hands,” Phillips says. The plane escapes the hangar doors as he punches the turbo button, and the blast of air pushes them all back into their seats. They roar down the runway and approach the speed of the plane.

Steve starts to jump up onto the long hood, “Hold her steady,” she says.

“Wait!” Peggy calls. Without hesitation, she grabs the front of Steve’s uniform and kisses her. Steve’s eyes go wide, but Peggy lets her go, and then grabs Bucky by the ear, and pulls him in for a kiss as well.

They all stare at Phillips. “I’m not kissing any of you!”

Steve makes her way out to the front of the plane, putting her shield on her back. The propellers hit it and the car, but miss all the occupants. As soon as she is clear of the cab, Bucky follows her.

“Toss me,” he says.

“What?” Steve asks.

“I said toss me!” Bucky yells. “But don’t tell the Commandos!”

Steve balances herself in a crouch and grabs Bucky by the collar and the top of his pants, then throws him at the wheel of the plane. He grabs on and she launches herself as the plane leaves the cliff, catching the back wheel. She hears the car squeal to a stop and glances back, heart in her throat.

 

* * *

 

Peggy is thrown around as the car rocks to a stop, one wheel out over the cliff’s edge. She sees the wheels retract into their wells, Bucky and Steve clinging on for dear life.

She turns to Phillips, who is staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Sir, I can explain,” she starts.

“Agent Carter, I really don't want to know. What you do is your business.”

 

* * *

 

They pop up in the bomb bay of the jet and Bucky loses his breath at the names painted on the things. _Chicago. Boston. New York._ Steve’s beating up a bunch of guys when one of them takes _New York_ and opens the hatch. Bucky jumps on top to try to eject the pilot when a man lands on top of him.

The bomb drops out and away. A brief struggle ensues, that ends in the man being shredded by the propeller. Bucky punches a button on the glass of the cockpit and the man is ejected. He lowers himself into the place where the seat used to be and steers the bomb back up to the plane. Not really caring where he puts it, he plows right through the back of the plane, which suddenly goes into a steep dive. Bucky throws the top of the cockpit open and is thrown forward, out of it. He sees bodies lying on the ground, and makes his way quickly to the plane’s command room, where there is a racket.

As he enters the room he sees Steve pressing Schmidt’s face into a glowing blue cube. He screams, then the room seems to become the entire cosmos for a split second. Schmidt’s face melts off and the cube melts through the floor.

 

* * *

 

Steve goes to the pilot’s chair as soon as Schmidt is gone. Tears cloud her vision. She saw Bucky fall on the bomb. Schmidt had what was coming to him. (And if that had involved Steve shoving him up against the blue cube until the plane turned into the galaxy and Schmidt literally melted, well, that was between her and the plane.) She furiously wipes the hot tears out of her eyes, and throws her helmet to the side.

Bucky’s gone. She caught him the first time he fell, but there’s no way she could have saved him from this one. After all the times he helped her fight off bullies. She owes her whole life to him. And now his life is gone.

She knows what has to be done. There’s no way to put the plane down where no one but her will get hurt.

She calls Peggy.

 

* * *

 

Peggy is sitting in the control center of the captured HYDRA base when Steve’s call comes in. She sounds raw and broken.

“He’s gone, Peggy,” she says.

“Schmidt?” Peggy asks.

“Schmidt’s dead, but Bucky fell out of the plane with a bomb,” Steve says, voice breaking on a sob.

Then, “God, Steve, no.” Bucky.

Peggy’s heart lifts.

“Bucky?” Steve says. She sounds confused. “But how?”

“The bombs are individually piloted,” Bucky says. “I crashed it into the back of the plane.

“I’ll find a place for you to put down,” Peggy says, gesturing to the men behind her to find her one.

“Peggy,” Steve says. “Bucky. We can’t. There’s no way to put it down safely.”

“You’re going into the water, aren’t you?” Bucky asks.

“I have to,” Steve says.

“No you don’t!” Peggy shouts, the tears starting to run down her face.

“Peggy. We do. It’s the only way,” Bucky says softly.

“It’ll save a whole lot of lives if we do it here. We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Steve says.

“I want to see you two at the Stork Club a week from Saturday. Eight pm sharp!” Peggy says.

“We’ll be there,” Steve says.

“You should wear that red—”Bucky says.

Peggy says, “Steve? Bucky? Are you there?”

The line is dead.

They’re gone.

Only static is left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the END. I know. I promise there will be more. Next up is what happened to Peggy after the war. Oh, and it's most certainly _not_ canon.

**Author's Note:**

> Visit my sad, messy Tumblr: [Firefly's Love](http://fireflyslove.tumblr.com). Lots of Stucky. It is multifandom.


End file.
